Muay Thai Vs Kung Fu - Your advice?

Hi!

I have trained at least twice a week in muay thai for just over a year & I have also just started doing an MMA class. I also train at home on my heavy bag & do general conditioning (ie running & weight training).

I have done a fair bit of sparring with mixed results but have not done any for a while due to braking my ribs (in MMA sparring).

A friend of mine has been training in Wing Chun for about 20 years and has previously run his own classes etc. He has said he has never been in a REAL fight but has done a limited ammount of full contact sparring with other Kung Fu students. I have been trying to get him to spar with me for a while just to see how good he is as he talks a good game and keeps saying how Kung Fu is transferable to Muay Thai and also talks about the time he sparred with some TKD guys, destroyed them and how they then wanted to learn Kung Fu.

First of all he said he would, then he kindda tried to back out, then he said he cant spar with boxing gloves as too big for chain punching etc so I agreed to spar stand up with MMA gloves, so now he has reconsidered and we have agreed on 16oz boxing gloves.

I am hoping this will take place & will video it if it does. Any tips of what to watch for or what will throw him off his game (im thinking circling & throwing a lot hooks and smiling when he hits me with his best shot).

I enjoy fighting a lot and I dont mind about getting a beating....but Im going to never live this down if he comes out better.......

This Kung-fu guys is saying your kung-fu guy is a lot of talk. Some Kung-fu does transfer well to Muay Thai. All depends upon the person but Muay Thai tends to produce a more consistent type of fighter.

This Kung-fu guys is saying your kung-fu guy is a lot of talk. Some Kung-fu does transfer well to Muay Thai. All depends upon the person but Muay Thai tends to produce a more consistent type of fighter.

I did Wing Chun, completed about one third of the style, and then converted to Muay Thai, and am now training it pro.

I can tell you from experience the things I think the style is poor against:

Hooks; he will probably be pretty good at stopping them, actually. His foot work will save him from your hooks.

Better with straight punches and upper cuts. He will have trained a lot against straight punches but mostly only against other WC guys, prob. If he is same like I was the straight punch of MT will be so unfamiliar to him it will be like he never learned to block it.

He will stop the round kicks easy, but be slow to recover given the type of block WC guys use for that kick. If you round kick him and he blocks it, try going straight from the round kick into the rear arm punch; you know that move? (I call it the superman punch) where you kick and then lauch the punch before your foot hits the ground. He wont know what hit him!

If you want to hurt him kick his shins. Self explanitory, but that is not what sparring is about.

I dunno about your flexibility, but if you did the crocodile whiping his tail kick then you will KO him. LOL, that would be funny. That even confuses MT guys! This might work if you can do it. He is going to try and move around toward the side of your lead arm constantly, and take your back, perfect for the kick.

It is important to know that WC uses the blind side. When you start sparring throw a couple of straight jabs one after the other. He will brush them aside and move around it to the same side the jab came from. When he does this step back a bit to foil it. Dont let him get there because that is where he works best.

Hope that helps. Dunno if you'll understand it. It is hard explaining this **** through text. Personally, I think if he was unwilling to spar then he wont be very good. Guys who spar a lot get so used to it that it is just normal training. If someone asks them to spar there is no reason to say no.